RayMarine

For the most part I try to avoid a few of the established Marine Companies. At least those on the electronics side. They seem to create short life expectancy in their electronics hoping that people will upgrade /part with their money just for the fun of it.

I was disappointed when RayMarine bought Tacktick, the wireless depth speed, wind speed, wind direction company. For a few years it didn't matter. It didn't matter till it did.

First I don't like drilling holes in my boat. When we purchased the Tacktick I was informed it could indeed shoot through the hull. Great. Bought it, installed it and it worked great. It worked great for 10 years. Then I ran into an issue. Now I know there are some out there that would say any electronic item I get 10 years out of is.... GREAT. And it was. What wasn't great was that all I needed to do was get a new battery pack and bingo I would be back in business.

Enter Fiji. Getting one sent to Fiji would be an issue. Knowing that I needed a new one was the bigger issue. You can see how this adventure unfolded on our blog.

But let me get to Raymarine. The first issue in Fiji in which I delt with them was that the instruments have two different frequencies that they operate on. An EU and US frequency. No where in the instruction are those mentioned. And while one individual in RayMarine had told me what to do to change it, I can not for the life of me find those instrucitons anymore. But there it did work.

The second issue is they do not seem to ever have updated the manual, mentioning that there is a battery in the display and a battery in the Hull transmitter that needs to be replaced. The ommissions are in my estimatation unexceptable. Their grade would be lower then a C if it were that alone.

However; I purchased a new complete wireless Raymarine unit. The rep said it would not shoot through the hull. I had to purchase a new separate transducer to connect to the unit. It does indeed shoot through the hull just fine. I do not get the water speed then, but as a cruiser... I don't care. Speed over ground and my GPS postion is much more important. Second, in contacting them when my new unit failed to work; the tech suggested I send it in. The display would not connect to the Hull transmitter. Reluctantly I did.

And boy was I surprised. In less then 10 days I had the unit back in my hands.... working. Since it has been installed; with the through the hull transducer and again I am a happy cruiser.

RayMarine ... Grade C


Grade C...